Changes in Japan’s Foreign and Security Policy Associate Professor Marie Söderberg, European Institute of Japanese Studies

At the moment, very substantial reforms in the field of security are being undertaken in Japan. “The New National Defence Program Guidelines for 2005 and After”, as well as the “Midterm Defence Program Fiscal Year 2005-2009” both talk about a thorough restructuring of the Self Defence Forces to make them able to respond effectively to new threats, such as terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, as well as provide a more proactive Japanese policy with various initiatives to improve the international security environment. There is a definite strengthening of the Japanese-US security relation, where Japan is being asked to and is willing to take a bigger role. The declaration by North Korea that they now possess nuclear weapons is considered an imminent threat to Japan. This, in connection with the abduction issue (see below) is played up in Japanese mass media and is being used by certain groups to create changes in Japan’s defence posture. These are changes that the Japanese consider necessary to counter the larger threat in the long term, the rise of China. This paper will start with a short historic overview of the Japanese defence posture since World War II and give a short presentation of the kinds of threats Japan feels it is facing since September 11, 2001, and in the future. Then we will continue with Japanese-North Korean relations, and Japanese-Chinese relations. The recent strengthening of the Japanese-US security cooperation, and its implications for Japanese defence posture, as well as regional cooperation, will be covered. We will conclude with what these changes imply for Europe, as well as the role Europe could play in securing peace and stability in Asia.Security policy; Foreign policy; Japan; Japan-North Korea; Japan-China; Japan-Europe

CHANGES IN JAPANESE FOREIGN AID POLICY

The main part of Japanese aid is directed to Asia and there has been a strong emphasis on economic infrastructure, that is building railways, roads and ports etc. Recently however there is a refocusing towards environmental aid and “softer” types of aid such as poverty alleviation and social infrastructure. ODA that used to be based on the request from the recipient countries has become much more politicised, with Japan itself making country assistance plans indicating what fields they are willing to provide aid in. This is not always popular with the recipient government as in the case of China. In this case it has actually made Japan’s already complex relation with China even more complicated. The paper will start with a short historic review of Japanese ODA policy and the characteristics of Japanese aid. This will be followed by an explanation of the changes going on in Japanese foreign aid policy and finally we will see how this how this effect aid to China and the role of aid in the future Japan-China relationship.Japan-China relations; Japanese ODA policy; foreign aid; environmental aid; poverty alleviation; social infrastructure; country assistance plans

Japan's ODA Policy in Northeast Asia

The world’s largest donor of ODA during the 1990s, Japan, is now making substantial cuts. ODA decreased by three per cent for the fiscal year ending March 2002 and for the coming year another ten percent cut will be made. This is an attempt to improve the situation of the Japanese state budget that after ten years of economic stagnation or recession is running with a huge deficit. Coupled with this we have the falling value of the yen, which further decreases what the recipients can expect to get from Japan. Under present conditions conventional Japanese ODA is not likely to play a major role in the development in Northeast Asia, at least not in the short term perspective. There is considerable space, however, for a number of initiatives from local levels and Japanese NGO:s. I will start by looking at what countries that have a chance of getting ODA. This will be followed by a general overview of Japanese ODA and what future trends will look like. Aid to Mongolia will be analysed and then aid to Japan’s largest recipient, namely China, and on-going changes there in. Finally I will conclude with suggestions for small scale measures that might enhance Japan’s image in the area.Foreign Aid; Japanese ODA-policy; Japan-China relations; Mongolia; NGO; Japanese local initiatives

ODA FOR CHINA: SEED MONEY AND A WINDOW FOR CONTACTS

The Chinese economy has been growing with an average of 10 per cent during the last 25 years. Walking in downtown Shanghai or Beijing, you can find some spots that are so luxurious that they are unrivalled in the world. China does not fit the picture of an average developing country. However, China is still a large recipient of foreign aid. Figures from OECD show that in 2003 the People’s Republic of China received USD 1.3 billion but ODA (Official Development Assistance), only amounts to 0.1 percent of Chinese GNP. The Chinese economic growth is certainly not dependent on foreign aid. At the government level in Beijing, ODA is seen as seed money, a window for contacts with foreign experts and technologies or as cheap financing. This paper will start by looking at China as a recipient. What are the processes of receiving aid, what do the Chinese want to get out of it and what are their priorities? This will be followed by a description of China’s main donor, Japan, where aid to China is a highly political and controversial question. After a short description of Nordic aid to China in general, we will look at Swedish aid and make case studies at the project level. In the conclusion, China as a recipient will be analysed, as well as Japan and Sweden as donors looking specifically at the concept of ownership, partnership and institutional change.Japanese foreign aid; Nordic foreign aid; ODA; ODA to China; partnership; ownership; institutional change

A content validated questionnaire for assessment of self reported venous blood sampling practices

BACKGROUND: Venous blood sampling is a common procedure in health care. It is strictly regulated by national and international guidelines. Deviations from guidelines due to human mistakes can cause patient harm. Validated questionnaires for health care personnel can be used to assess preventable "near misses"--i.e. potential errors and nonconformities during venous blood sampling practices that could transform into adverse events. However, no validated questionnaire that assesses nonconformities in venous blood sampling has previously been presented. The aim was to test a recently developed questionnaire in self reported venous blood sampling practices for validity and reliability. FINDINGS: We developed a questionnaire to assess deviations from best practices during venous blood sampling. The questionnaire contained questions about patient identification, test request management, test tube labeling, test tube handling, information search procedures and frequencies of error reporting. For content validity, the questionnaire was confirmed by experts on questionnaires and venous blood sampling. For reliability, test-retest statistics were used on the questionnaire answered twice. The final venous blood sampling questionnaire included 19 questions out of which 9 had in total 34 underlying items. It was found to have content validity. The test-retest analysis demonstrated that the items were generally stable. In total, 82% of the items fulfilled the reliability acceptance criteria. CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire could be used for assessment of "near miss" practices that could jeopardize patient safety and gives several benefits instead of assessing rare adverse events only. The higher frequencies of "near miss" practices allows for quantitative analysis of the effect of corrective interventions and to benchmark preanalytical quality not only at the laboratory/hospital level but also at the health care unit/hospital ward

Optimisme – påvirker det salgsprestasjoner?

I denne bacheloroppgaven ser vi på disposisjonell optimisme og hvordan dette kan påvirke salgsprestasjoner blant telefonselgere. Vi ønsket samtidig å belyse hvorfor optimisme kan være nyttig og effektivt for bedrifter å fokusere på. Det teoretiske grunnlaget for oppgaven tar utgangspunkt i Carver og Scheier’s teori om disposisjonell optimisme. I tillegg til dette har vi sett på et studie gjennomført i Nederland av Grip og Feld, hvor de testet disposisjonell optimisme på et stort antall telefonselgere. Grip og Feld har i sin studie kommet fram til at disposisjonelle optimister predikerer flere salg i timen, med det faktum at de tar flere samtaler per time (Grip og Feld, 2013, 19). Grunnlaget var derfor å se på om de som har høy grad av disposisjonell optimisme i et slikt yrke, presterer bedre på jobb. På bakgrunn av temaet har vi valgt følgende problemstilling: “I hvilken grad kan disposisjonell optimisme føre til bedre salgsprestasjoner blant telefonselgere?” Med utgangspunkt i tidligere forskning og teori på feltet, utarbeidet vi hypoteser som skal bidra til å svare på problemstillingen vår: H1: Høyere grad av disposisjonell optimisme fører til flere salg H2: Personer med høyere grad av disposisjonell optimisme tar flere utgående telefoner i løpet av en arbeidsdag Vi valgte å gjennomføre en tverrsnittundersøkelse, og metodevalget falt derfor på en kvantitativ tilnærming, med et ekstensivt design. Vi sendte ut en spørreundersøkelse via Survio til salgsledere i ulike bedrifter, som videresendte dette til sine ansatte. Vi fikk 117 respondenter i alderen 20-50+, hvor begge kjønn er representert. Vi har ingen signifikante funn i undersøkelsen vår, noe som vi antar kan skyldes visse mangler i prosessen. Vi mener likevel at resultatene våre legger grunnlag for videre forskning, med et annet undersøkelsesdesign. Avslutningsvis vil vi konkludere oppgaven vår, samt komme med innspill til videre forskning, der vi gjør rede for hva vi ville gjort annerledes for å oppnå bedre resultater

Six iterative reconstruction algorithms in brain CT- A phantom study on image quality at different radiation doses.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the image quality produced by six different iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms in four CT systems in the setting of brain CT, using different radiation dose levels and iterative image optimisation levels. METHODS: An image quality phantom, supplied with a bone mimicking annulus, was examined using four CT systems from different vendors and four radiation dose levels. Acquisitions were reconstructed using conventional filtered back-projection (FBP), three levels of statistical IR and, when available, a model-based IR algorithm. The evaluated image quality parameters were CT numbers, uniformity, noise, noise-power spectra, low-contrast resolution and spatial resolution. RESULTS: Compared with FBP, noise reduction was achieved by all six IR algorithms at all radiation dose levels, with further improvement seen at higher IR levels. Noise-power spectra revealed changes in noise distribution relative to the FBP for most statistical IR algorithms, especially the two model-based IR algorithms. Compared with FBP, variable degrees of improvements were seen in both objective and subjective low-contrast resolutions for all IR algorithms. Spatial resolution was improved with both model-based IR algorithms and one of the statistical IR algorithms. CONCLUSION: The four statistical IR algorithms evaluated in the study all improved the general image quality compared with FBP, with improvement seen for most or all evaluated quality criteria. Further improvement was achieved with one of the model-based IR algorithms. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: The six evaluated IR algorithms all improve the image quality in brain CT but show different strengths and weaknesses

Clinical responses to adoptive T-cell transfer can be modeled in an autologous immune-humanized mouse model

Combining different types of immune therapies might benefit certain patients. Here, the authors develop an autologous immune-humanized melanoma mouse model that allows the preclinical assessment of cancer cell–T cell interactions from each individual patient and the benefits of immunotherapies combinations